Deakin Business School

Menu

BEYOND THE FOUR WHEELS !!!

Are you still just driving in your transit??? Definitely not. Consumers in the auto industry changed the perception about a car from its invention to this date. At once the four wheels are used to just as one of the modes of transportation, but today it’s pretty much a second home to many.

Digitalization and automation had made revolutionary changes in many sectors, and auto industry is not an exception. Consumer have changed the trend and now they are no more willing to waste their valuable time just driving to destinations.

The change in consumer way of thinking towards auto industry can pen down into
four heads.

Electrification:

The Eco- mindsets of customers made them to think about
environmental problems because of fuel emissions. And hence they are showing up interest towards hybrid vehicles, not only they are concerned for environment but also the economical availability of the infrastructure used to charge the vehicles, the low battery cost and the strict emission regulations made them to shift the trend towards hybrid vehicles. And the shift was clearly seen couple of days back when TESLA started pre-release bookings for their model-3 vehicle, which got a whopping 2, 30,000 bookings. Now this shows the way consumers changed their mindsets towards hybrid vehicles. Another example in the segment can be TOYOTA PRIUS.

CONNECTIVITY & FEATURES:

Smart phones have changed the way people live; now this trend is carried to auto industry. Today 99 % of the population carry a smart phone. Now when these people travel they are no more interested in the manual CD players in their vehicles. Consumers are demanding something faster and easier ways of entertainment media in their four wheels. They want to convert the idol time in some productive way. The changes started with connecting the smart phone to vehicle through sync media and today the connectivity had gone through many innovations now the customers no need to think about the parking problems cause its totally automatic, now the seats come with massaging technology, so you not only travel but also can relax and soothe your muscles at one go. Navigation systems, key less entry, one key data recovery systems.

now few vehicles comes with an inbuilt tab through which you can control the car from media devices to transferring data, upgrading the vehicles media software, driverless parking, seating adjustments, mood lighting, fragrances in the vehicle. One such vehicle suiting today’s customers in BMW 7 SERIES. Even in many economical cars we can find the trend shift in connectivity aspect. Not to forget about the research by Google on automatic cars, and Tesla model cars.

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING:

safety is one the most important thing a consumer expects from the vehicle, air bags are now outdated feature from a consumer perspective, they are expecting something more like advanced driver assistance systems. From customer shoes they want their life’s on safe side irrespective of how big the crash is. The innovations in the segment made customers happy with features like automatic breaking systems (Volvo), body cell sensing vibrators in driver seat, 360 degree curtain airbags. These are a few which customers are expecting from industry.

DIVERSE MOBILITY:

As the increase in traffic jams , consumers are now focusing on sharing mobility, this trend is mainly observed in highly congested places like London, North America and Europe. Because of less parking spaces, increased vehicle flow couple of friends or colleagues share their vehicles. Such customers expect robustness, additional mileage, passenger comfort; low maintenance for high utilization etc. a survey says there is a decline of 4 % in applications for driver’s license in north America and also the sales of private cars have a sharp decline by 15 %.

As said in the diverse mobility , though it is good for environment and few issues like traffic jams, it has its cons from the industry perspective like the sales will definitely decline for private cars.

it can be perceived as economical substitute to private cars in consumers perspective too Bhavani. and yes a survey from Mckinsey Germany stated that , there would be whopping 15% decline in private car sales by 2030 because of sharing concept and e-hailing.

And now i found someone like me, the blog is really an insight towards the future super cars. the way it is depicted shows the authors interest towards the segment. specially the video supplemented speaks alot about topic name. good work.

Nice Topic.Safety is the first priority of people especially in travelling.Even in low cost vehicles all safety measures are taken by the companies to provide a sense of safety and security.Everything is changing rapidly because of technological advancement and auto-mobile industry need to take more steps in this fast paced environment.

yes now almost all the companies are providing minimum safety needs, and yes even government is ensuring that all the manufacturers are making a benchmark for the vehicles they provide. not to forget volvo v40 360 degree curtain air bag concept